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Cake day: June 20th, 2023

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  • So black teas are a very common thing to add to meads as they contribute tannins which can help with mouthfeel and balancing acidity of the final beverage. This tea in particular (Lapsang Souchong) is a smoked tea and so as well as adding tannins to the mead, also contributes as wonderful smokey flavour. My inspiration for this mead several years ago was to make something that had a similar flavour profile to a nice peated scotch. The maple syrup was allowed to fully ferment out to leave just a subtle woody-ness and it works in conjunction with the tea and oak spirals I aged the mead on to provide a pseudo-barrel aged taste to the final product.













  • [posted this as a top level reply by mistake at first]

    I’ve never played the board game because a) it’s pretty pricey and b) I don’t have a consistent group to play it with. I also do love digital adaptations of epic board games because it makes managing turns, cards, health etc way easier. That being said, this port of Gloomhaven is clearly very taxing on the aged hardware of the switch. I’m sure the PC version of the digital adaption runs better/faster/prettier etc. I’ve been playing by myself and despite all my complaints about the switch version, still thoroughly enjoying it.



  • I’ve been obsessed with gloomhaven since it was released on the switch. Sure it has a lot of UI issues and absolutely devours my switch’s battery life but it really scratches a heavy strategy itch in my brain. It is a very difficult game but with every failed “run” you keep all the gold and experience you gained so even failing a scenario helps progress you towards leveling up and being able to buy new items to help you in future endeavors. Every win I have eked out has felt really hard won and rewarding because of that.








  • I would say the reason something like TOSNA goes against the manufacturer’s directions is because the manufacturer just provide a “generic” usage recommendation (e.g. 1.5g per gallon or 1/2 tsp per gallon) when they amount you use should absolutely be customized to the batch you are making. I would argue that the most important part of TOSNA isn’t the fact that the nitrogen sources are “Organic” (although I do firmly believe that organic nitrogen sources (i.e from dead yeast cells) that do not contain DAP lead to fewer temperature spikes from rapid fermentation and therefore produce far fewer fusel alcohols and therefore require less aging time to “mellow”), but that it is the fact that it is a “Tailored” protocol, taking into consideration not only the total volume of must, but the gravity of that must, the nitrogen requirements of the yeast being used for the fermentation, whether there is fruit being added which would reduce the extraneous nitrogen required to be added for healthy fermentation etc.


  • I would guess YAN is more important because what’s the point of having free nitrogen if the yeast can’t actually utilise it.

    I’ve never done experiments between SNA and front loading all the nutrients. I don’t find the staggered additions difficult to do or a burden and I’m typically degassing/oxygenating anyway for the first few days. Plus it gives me an opportunity to take samples and see how fermentation is progressing.

    Sure it’s technically more work than the one and done method of front loading but not enough of an added burden that it’s too much effort to bother.